Chapter 20 #3
They ascended a narrow staircase, emerging into a richly appointed hallway lined with cleaned oil paintings and scrubbed crystal sconces.
Only the barest hints of the former state of the building remained—a section of fresh plaster in the ceiling that didn’t quite match the rest. A post on the stairway whose carvings were just a little too crisp to be as old as all the others.
The sounds of the party were louder here—music and laughter and the clink of glasses, overlaid now with worried murmurs about the disturbance outside.
“The security breach has been contained,” someone was saying as they passed an open doorway. “Just a minor incident. Fae vermin trying to spoil the party. Nothing to concern yourselves with.”
Minor incident. Nadi almost laughed. Kalo was out there with what sounded like half the remaining fae clans, turning the Nostrom’s perfectly manicured grounds into a warzone, and they were calling it a minor incident.
Vampire arrogance. It never changed.
Raziel stopped at a corner, peering around it toward the grand double doors at the end of the corridor. Beyond them, Nadi could hear the music more clearly now—a waltz, slow and elegant, played by what sounded like a full orchestra.
“The ballroom,” he murmured. “Fifty feet. We can—”
“Oh, you’re not going there.”
The voice came from behind them. High and sweet, like a child’s—but with something wrong underneath it. Something that made Nadi’s skin crawl. She knew that voice.
They spun.
The hallway behind them was no longer empty. A dozen guards in Rosov garb had materialized as if from thin air, their weapons drawn and aimed. And standing at the front of them, bouncing slightly on her heels like an excited child, was a vampire Nadi had hoped never to see again.
Asha Rosov had been done up like a porcelain doll.
Small and delicate, with dark hair curled short around a heart-shaped face and eyes that were just a little too wide, a little too glassy.
She wore a dress of pale pink silk that belonged at a debutante ball, not a military ambush, and she was smiling—a dreamy, absent smile that didn’t match the violence in her gaze.
“I knew you’d come,” Asha said, clapping her hands together in delight. “I told Nabrisi. I told her and told her, but she didn’t believe me. She said you were too smart to try something so stupid.” A giggle escaped her, high and tinkling and utterly unhinged. “But I knew. I always know.”
“Nabrisi is dead, Asha.” Raziel grimaced. “I killed her.”
“I told her that she was dead too!” Asha laughed. “But she doesn’t listen to me!”
“Asha.” Raziel’s voice was carefully neutral. “We are going to go speak to my brother and sister, if you don’t mind.”
“Oh, but I do mind.” She tilted her head, birdlike.
“You haven’t wished me a happy birthday yet.
Even though I don’t really keep track anymore.
Time is so boring, don’t you think? Just the same things happening over and over.
Parties and politics and people pretending they matter.
” Her too-wide eyes found Nadi, and her smile stretched even wider.
“But this is exciting. A serpent and a fish, sneaking into our home. Like a game!”
“I’m glad we could entertain you,” Nadi said flatly. It wasn’t Asha’s birthday either. But she wasn’t going to take the time to point that out.
Asha giggled again. “Oh, I like her. She’s funny. And we didn’t get to finish our dance last time!” She turned to one of her guards, tugging on his sleeve like a child seeking attention. “Isn’t she funny? I want to keep her. Can I keep her? Everyone wants to keep her.”
The guard’s face remained impassive. “Lady Asha, Lord Mael’s instructions were to bring them to him immediately.”
Asha’s expression flickered—a flash of something dark and terrible beneath the childish facade.
“Mael’s instructions,” she repeated, her voice going flat.
“Mael, Mael, Mael. Everyone always does what Mael says.” Then, just as quickly, the smile was back, bright and empty.
“Fine. We’ll bring them to the biggest brother.
But I get to play with them after. Promise me. ”
“Lady Asha—”
“Promise me.” The words came out sweet as poison. The guard flinched.
“I… Y—yes, Lady Asha.”
“Good boy.” She patted his arm, then turned back to Raziel and Nadi, clasping her hands behind her back and swaying slightly.
“Now then! Are you going to come quietly, or do I get to hurt you first?” She leaned forward, eyes glittering.
“Please say you’re going to fight. Please.
It’s been so long since I really got to hurt something that screams. And we were interrupted last time! ”
Nadi’s hand tightened on her blade. Behind her, she could hear more footsteps—guards coming from the direction of the ballroom, cutting off their only other escape route.
They were trapped. Surrounded. Twelve guns pointed at their heads and a mad vampire standing between them and any hope of survival.
Raziel’s hand found hers in the space between their bodies. A brief touch. A question.
Together?
She squeezed back. Together.
Somewhere outside, distant but unmistakable, another explosion shook the night.
Asha didn’t even flinch. She giggled once more.
“This is going to be so much fun.”